When I bought this months Slimming Mag, there was an ad for Cohen's Lifestyle Clinics. My questions ( and there are many) are, has anyone tried this, how much, what kind of program etc.. can someone give me the "lowdown".

I've never heard of it before I had to look through my slimming magazine to see what you were talking about. You could always give them a call & get you free info presentation to see if it is right for you. If you do decide to give it a go let us know how you go on it.

I did it about 4 years ago. It is similar to Sureslim where it is based on a blood test which is, I was told, personally analysed by Dr Cohen himself. It cost me around $600 from memory and it was a very hard diet to do. You are given a menu of what amounts of certain foods you can have (you are also given a list of the types of food that you are allowed to eat). For example:

BFAST: 175grams of natural yoghurt (the 99% fat free type)
MTEA: piece of allocated allowed fruit
LUNCH: 95grams of fish, 95 grams of allowed vegies (I used to have cauliflower, cabbage and capsicum)
AFTEA: piece of allocated allowed fruit
DINNER: 110 grams of fish/chicken with 95grams allowed vegies
(grams may not be exact but they are around that!!)

You were also allowed the small vitawheats (natural ones) about 5 a day.

You also had to drink at least 3 litres of water, were allowed a can and a half of diet soft drink (caffeine free), tea no milk.

You were allowed to eat at 5 hourly intervals.

I found that I lost a lot of weight quickly (11 kilos in 5 weeks). I was very hungry for the first 1 - 2 weeks then my body adjusted to what I was eating. I used to go to bed at night with a very empty feeling in my stomache (not hungry - just empty).

I have all the brochures here, with the refeeding programme as well (after you reach your goal weight - you have to do 21 days of refeeding). I never did that - I suppose I got too cocky after loosing soo much weight. I try to do it every so often - but my body does not want to do it again.

Best of luck if you decide to go a head with it - you will get results guaranteed if you stick the the program completely. At the time - it was the best diet for me to do. If I had the will power I would do it again - maybe one day when my body is ready ......

You can PM me if you want to know anything else about it.
Cheers Michelle

Lunch: 75g Poultry + 85g vegies or 75g fish + 85g vegies and so on and so forth.

I was only allowed three feeding times a day. and very restrictive, no peas, corn, carrot etc. I also had to down a shot of extra virgin cold pressed olive oil every day, and no seasonings. For the first week and a bit I had some pretty bad headaches and for pretty much the entire length of the program I had some serious abdominal pain. Later told to me by someone else that the body often starts reacting to the digestion of the seeds because they are so difficult to digest. I was then told grinding them up before consumption can help. I did find it took alot of determination and grit to stick to it, which I did and lost around 15kg on... But it all went pear shaped when i started working unpredictable shift rotations and I'd find my self working through a 12 hour night shift with nothing to eat absolutely starved... So I started eating and it all fell apart. I agree that the program is good, and one day when my life is possibly more sorted out I may give it a burl again, because it does take a lot of time to organise and plan your meals. at least that is what I found.

If you wanna know anything else from the Sure slim side, give us a hoy.

I did sureslim and lost 16kgs Im not a goal yet(damm those last 5kgs!!) I love it but was allocated more grams than what the other had (130gms of protien at lunch 14o at dinner) I eat a huge variety of food but Ive learned to get really creative with herbs and spices, I loved the seads they were tasty when yougot creative with themand I added my olive oil to my veges and salads with some viniger like it was adressing- I could never drink it straight up!! Its really tought me how to control my eating
goodluck with your decision!

I was lurking and saw this thread, just had to reply, hope you don't mind...

Cohens is NOT like Sureslim, other than that you have a blood test at the beginning. There the similarity pretty much ends.

With Cohens you will be given a specific food prescription. It will tell you what you can eat and when. Not exact times, but rules for how to eat, for example you can't mix proteins, so you must have 5 hours between protein meals.

I lost my weight on the Cohens programme, and it took me just under a year to lose 88kg. If you have a look at the 'slimmer of the year' competition page, you can see my before and after photos on the last page. I'm #10, Larysa J. Also on the SOTY site, in the bottom left corner.

The programme is NOT difficult. Actually it's probably the easiest around, being that there is NO decisions to be made. You're told exactly what you can have. No variations, no guessing, no judging, nothing.

I've seen MANY different people's programmes, and I've never seen two even remotely similar. They are DEFINATELY not the same. I know Sure slim's are based on your 'blood type' as in, if you're A+ you get diet #2, etc. Cohens has nothing to do with your blood TYPE, it's got to do with the hormone, insulin and seratonin etc levels in your blood. Dr Cohen examines these and writes your programme individually.

While on the programme I ate six meals a day,
Breakfast (for me) was yoghurt, but I could have had egg and veg or other choices,
Morning tea was an apple and a full salada bikkie.
Lunch was usually Chicken and salad (but there were other choices, sometimes I had prawns and salad, or tuna/salad, etc).
Afternoon tea was another apple and half a salada (two squares).
Dinner was chicken or beef and veg or salad.
Supper was another piece of fruit (usually an apple, but I love apple, or nectarine when they were in season) and another salada.

I found it amazingly easy to stick to, I just told myself that everything else was 'out of season'. I can have it again now that I'm finished. You're usually hungry/detoxing for the first usually 3 or 4 days, but after that, nup, not until the very end, when you're body's finished running on the stored fat (and goodness knows I had quite a bit of that!).

The biggest difference between this programme and any other is that it 'resets' your metabolism. When you reach your goal, and hence reach a metabolic equilibrium, you are given a 'refeeding programme' which re-introduces the foods you haven't been able to eat while on the programme. It reintroduces them in a controlled manner, again with rules. It's a little complicated, but hey, if I can do it anyone can.

This end programme is the only one of it's kind in the weight loss industry. It means your body is retrained to eat normal foods.

You need to be careful forever, as you would in any other programme, but, it gives you a MUCH better chance of not putting the weight back on.

I hope this has answered some of your questions. I'll wander back to see if there are others, or if you like you can visit the cohens forum.

Hey... The Sure slim has a re-feeding/training program as well... And sure slim goes of your insulin levels etc as well as blood type I believe... Cause somebody I know with the same blood type as me had a different menu...

But hey, I'm advocate of either... Do either if you want and I'm sure you'll be alright. The weekly check-ins are a great motivator as well...

well dont on your 88 kg loss, thats fantastic! But, I did want to say, that sureslim's blood tests are not based on your bloody dtype, they are also based on insulin, hormones, and seretonin. They test for diabetes and other probs as well. They tell you what to eat, how much, 5 hours apart. My friend Kylie has just started on SS I found out yesterday actually! They sound the same to me

Thanks Asy for your input into the Cohen's diet but whilst you found the diet easy to do - I struggled with it. Not everyone is the same when it comes to dieting - whereas some might find it easy - others can and do struggle.